Of Crystals and Music Notes
by PlatinumBunny23
Summary: Harper Dean honestly didn't know what to expect, but to become the pet project of the workaholic, overtly-aggressive, stupidly entitled class president and daughter of his lead suspect certainly wasn't at all what he had in mind. Nor what resulted due to this... Alt title: The adventures of Asparagus-kun and Angel Angel Alt alt title: How I met your mother
1. Act 1

Hero Academia OCs:

 _A/N: Wow, ok, um, so if you're not my partner in oc making crime, loyalspades on tumblr (Harper's creator) you'll probably have no idea why I made this, who the people featured here are – you basically have no reason to become invested in this. But if you check out my tumblr (Silverheartwritings) you'll probably find some more explanatory stuff…_

* * *

"Everyone… Everyone! OI, SHUT UP!"

The room went silent and the female student-hero hopped off the teacher's desk, a small scowl on her face. Her eyes darted around the room, challenging anyone to so much as whisper while she was talking. Her eyebrows relaxed after a moment and she gestured to the door. "We've got a transfer student, ah-!" she looked over the doorframe, "Asparagus-or-something?"

The green haired boy stepped into the room, an eyebrow quirked at the blonde girl's display. "I'm Harper Dean…" He walked to stand beside the girl and her lips twisted in a smirk as the class broke out into quiet murmurs at the new development. The boys were speculating if they could rope him into their friendship groups, girls were giggling and whispering like conspirators, and all were wondering what the boy had done to earn himself a place at Saint Rose's Hero Academy.

"I'm Angelina Valkyrie, the class president. I'm the principal's daughter so come to me if you get into any trouble and I can probably get you off scotch-free, Asparagus." The girl wafted her hand lazily and sat cross legged on the front desk, ignoring the green haired student's unamused correction of his name. "There's a free seat by horned tomato and wolfy so go take that and enjoy being swamped."

"Swamped?" he muttered and took a seat. Instantly he was surrounded by around ten students, all squabbling to have their question heard.

"Hey, hey! I'm Elise, welcome to the class! Which country are you from? How come you got transferred early on? What's your Quirk?" chirped a red headed girl with draconic horns spiralling out of her skull.

"I'm a-!"

"Harper, right?" a burly Scandinavian looking boy clapped him on the back, nearly knocking the wind out his body. "I'm Reiner. Angelina called you Asparagus, huh? Bwahaha! Don't take it too personally; she calls everyone something weird but she does know your name – she calls me a 'wet chicken nugget' 'cause of my hair." He chuckled and ran a hand through his short-cropped hair.

"I should pro'ly mention," Angelina piped up over the crowd, "we haven't got a set 'teacher' aside from normal subjects as we're often left to our devices in hero training so I usually teach theory – we get a different teacher all the time when we do practical though. Lesson starts in like five minutes or so…" Harper watched as her attention was drawn to the boy mentioned as 'Wolfy' approached her with a couple of other students. From the bits he could pick up, they sounded like a long-time friendship group.

"So! Harper, what's your Quirk?"

The green haired boy grinned slightly and with a snigger, the question was reiterated with the same tone and pitch – mimicking the voice perfectly. Harper was pretty proud of his quirk to recreate any sound he heard – it was surprisingly useful. 'Oooh's and 'aaah's went up though a few of the students frowned in worry.

"Is, ah, all it can do?" Elise worried her lip, revealing a sit off sharp teeth, "I mean it's _good_ and quite flashy but, er, it's not… 'hero-y' if that makes sense…"

They were interrupted by a sliding sound and the crowd parted to allow Angelina to shoo the students to their seats. "Ya brats, if Principal Valkyrie let him in then he's got more than that up his sleeve." She snapped. Harper's eyes fixated on the fact that her feet were now encased in a pair of nearly opaque, crystal roller blades, tinted in a shade of pink. 'Rich kids' was the only thing that rattled through Harper's mind at the sight. The group made no note of the existence of the shoes, hinting that they were a regular occurrence, and dispersed to their respective desks. "Come on, I gotta start the class soon."

As Angelina rolled to the front and began a slideshow on recue procedures, it only then hit Harper how peculiar and unorthodox the school was. He had expected rigorous, strict, militant training, not for the sixteen-year-old class president to lounge on the teacher's desk and give mild insults and swears every few minutes while she _taught._ He didn't expect from a school under investigation for villainy to give him such an informal and warm welcome. 'Investigate the school and find out what they're really up to' not whatever _this_ was.

By the time the bell rang to mark time to transition to practical, Harper had been surprised to find that Angelina was a surprisingly good teacher of Heroic Theory.

It was at this moment, as he was guided by the rest of the class through the school to their next lesson, surrounded by smiles and just overall warmth, did he sincerely hope that this was all there was to this school.

* * *

Harper was soon inducted into the class. He found that a quarter of them were children of Europe's top heroes, such as Angelina, Wolfgang and her childhood friendship group, while the rest had just been gifted with the skill, Quirk, talent and determination to become heroes and get into S.R. Though, judging by the flickers of conversation, Angelina and her group were not lacking there as well.

Harper was welcomed with open arms and that was a little bit terrifying – considering what might happen if the reason he had gotten in had been found out. He was included in Reiner's study groups, and Elise's social gatherings, and a number of other events held by the numerous classmates. But the person he had ended up connecting the most had been Angelina, the creative curser and daughter of his main target.

At _first_ he had been interacting with her with the mission in mind – if he was going to get information out of any of the students it would probably be the ringleader's own offspring, who also seemed to exert a surprisingly strong amount of control over the class.

Then, they had their first combat training class.

Harper was not used to combat. _Sure_ he had received some self-defence training from his parents, but he was now in a class of a continent's most powerful potential heroes, or if his mission came to fruition: the most dangerous teens in the entirety of Europe. He had stared in bemusement when a costume design sheet had been placed in front of him before he had entered, unsure what to put down. He had end up with a vague shape of a generic hero costume with a couple of notes saying 'enhance speed and strength' and 'hearing and voice projection increase', hoping that they would come up with _something_ that would help him keep up.

He stared at the body armour and felt himself pale. What was he doing? _Oh that's right_ he went along with his parents' demands _again_. His eyes darted to the other male students milling out, geared up in the specialised outfits, and Harper swallowed a gulp at the blatant sight of muscles – muscles that could snap him in half in an instant. _Ooh boy_.

He didn't realise that all the male students had left until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He whirled around in panic and was faced with an unimpressed Angelina. She was draped in a black cloak across her shoulders, the thick cloth falling down around her knees where he could just see her bare feet peeking out. After the initial surprise of seeing her, the realisation of where they were hit him.

"THIS IS THE BOY'S CHANGE ROOMS!"

'I know."

Harper floundered and stared wide eyed at her boldness. She merely quirked an eyebrow as though _he_ was the aberrant. "What if I was changing?!" He felt entirely exposed in just a singlet and shorts and in front of _a girl_. Where was his hoodie?

She looked at the helmet in his hand and huffed. "You can't get your armour on?"

"Eh? H-how did you-?"

"Everyone else is waiting for you." _Ah._ The blonde student-hero groaned and reached out, unclicking a hidden mechanism on the suit that let it spring open. "It's a pretty standard issue armour – you'll definitely want something more specific soon." She turned tail and disappeared with a billow, back out the door.

When he finally managed to pull the accursed thing on, the poor green haired spy clunked his way over to the awaiting group. He took in the sight of them all donned in their uniforms and felt at awe – they really were heroes. Costumes in colours and styles matching to the current trends, all altered to bring the most out everyone's respective Quirks.

"Ooh! Harper you've gone for a set of armour! Nice!" chirped Elise, her draconic features accentuated by her tribal outfit. Her thick scaled tail twitched from side to side, drawing the attention of Leo's cat eyes who looked ready to pounce at any given moment.

"Haha, yeah, I wasn't entirely sure what to do for my outfit…" he laughed nervously, distinctly aware of the aura of power and intimidation his classmates exerted. Aah, how nice it would be to return to his little village in England…

"Oh, you're the transfer? Welcome, Mister Asparagus!"

Harper's stomach deserved to be in the Olympics for the drop it did in response to the deep booming voice. His eyes darted over to see the 'final boss' of his mission – the principal of Saint Rose, the number one hero, rivalled only by his wife, the main suspect of the investigation, among other titles: Odin Valkyrie, AKA God King. The man was worthy of his titles, holding an office in nearly all major cities of Europe and had been a critical player in many disasters and villain capture operations, having a powerful 'god-like' power that could mould anything he desired.

"H-hello!" Harper squeaked out and a couple of sniggers went up at the crack in his voice.

God King burst out into hysterical laughter, slapping his knee as he roared. "OH MY! Sorry! Sorry! It's just that-!" he glanced back at the poor teen and wheezed into laughter again. "You look so foreboding in that armour but you've got such a tiny voice!" When the mirth-ridden hero was finally able to sober himself up, he looked over the group and smiled. "Sorry for the delay, but we can rejoice that we now have even numbers! So, let us begin an exercise that I have been eagerly awaiting to try out" he pulled out three boxes and waved them for the group to see. "Team battles! Good old heroes versus villains! Pull a number out of the box and whoever you match with, you partner up with. I'll pull the numbers out of these boxes next for who will play hero and villain!"

The first box was shared around as numbers were plucked out and pairs were quickly sorted. Harper reluctantly pulled out a '3' and before he could even glance around, Angelina had appeared beside him, wafting her own digit. "Seems we're partners, Baby Asparagus."

"Baby Asparagus?!"

Her lips twisted up in a smirk and she chuckled. "Because you're new and can't get your armour on – like a baby." She turned her attention back to the class to wait for who they would be declared to fight against. Reiner caught the shaken teen's eyes and grimaced in sympathy, mouthing 'she means well' and flicking his eyes to the cloaked blonde.

God King then proceeded to pull out numbers and much to Harper's _delight_ , '3' was pulled out of the Villains box, pitting them against group '2' which consisted of Elise and Leo. They were debriefed on how were set to protect a 'bomb' from the heroes, while also avoiding capture, within a time limit of fifteen minutes. "Excellent! Any questions?" the armoured teen opened his mouth to ask if they would step in if things got out of hand, but was cut off with a "Great! Rest of you, follow me to the monitoring room!"

The heroes were given a layout of the building while Harper meekly followed Angelina inside, hurriedly locating the 'bomb'. _Aah_ , how ironic, he was supposed to be weeding out villains yet here he was playing the role of one! Fate sure was a cruel mistress… Angelina glanced at him and shifted from side to side, a scowl creeping on her features. "You're not used to combat, are you?"

"Ah- um, yeah."

She tched and a hand emerged from the fold of her cloak to fiddle with the clasp at her throat. "Well then I can't ask you to go and fight them… plus your Quirk is…" Her brown eyes suddenly slid closed and her breathing evened out sharply. _Did she fall asleep? Is she some kind of narcoleptic_? Poor Harper nearly yelped when her eyes snapped open and she glared at him. "Keh, I'll have to bootcamp you after this but for now – stay out of my way for now." She flipped her hand while widening her stance. Her aura was completely different now – saturated in a dark, ominous aura.

"What are you-!" his red eyes widened in shock as her bared feet began to become frosted over with a reddish crystal-like substance. Weren't her roller skates from earlier like that? Was this her Quirk? The rose coloured rock began to pool around her feet and the floor cracked, the translucent stone pushing its way down. "What are you doing?" he whispered.

"What does it look like?" although it was blunt, her words held an almost teacher-like tone.

"Are you… ah! You're making barricades?"

"Eh, close enough, Asparagus." She grumbled and she knelt down, bringing herself closer to the crystal. "I can see with my crystal so I'm creating a surveillance – _then_ I'll make decoys and barricades with the left over stuff."

"That's… wow!" the spy whispered. No wonder the others respected her despite her odd use of nicknames… and frequent mood swings. It was incredible! He watched the crystals thicken in the cracks and slow, looking like a thick, sticky syrup.

"Do you do undercover?"

Harper nearly jumped out of his skin when those words rang out. He had been found out this quickly?! "A-ah, why do you ask?"

The crystal stopped, apparently complete in providing adequate protection and Angelina gave him a deadpanned stare. "I mean: can you do stealthy stuff? The hell did you think I was saying, you egg?"

"…egg?"

"Yeah, you've devolved into an egg now because you're just that much of a rookie. So? Can you?"

Harper felt the world resume and gave a small, strained laugh. "Y-yeah, I can."

Angelina nodded and gestured to the stairs. "Use my audio to lead them astray but _try not to be seen._ "

He was about to turn tail and follow her command, albeit a bit bewildered, when he saw Angelina visibly flinch and a loud bang echoed through the building. A shout rang out, alarmingly close: "WE'RE NOT GOING TO FALL FOR THE SAME TRICK ANY MORE, ANGELINA!"

"Shit." The girl shakily got to her feet and the crystal dissipated. "We're going have to do actual combat, and _of course_ , it's with the asparagus-egg." She snarled out.

"Asparagus don't have e-EH?!" Harper's jaw dropped when the cloak was unclasped and cascaded off Angelina's shoulders to pool at the floor, revealing an alarmingly small costume. For a shocking moment, he thought she was in nothing but her underwear, only to realise that the two piece had been purposefully made that way. Crystal once again collected on her skin and speedily formed a set of armour, complete with gauntlets, boots, sword and shield.

Angelina twisted her head around to scowl at him, seeing his shocked and surprised expression. "W-what? This is only a mock-battle so I can only really use a close-combat weapon and outfit and nothing too damaging, ya shitty asparagus." She snarled, startling the poor teen once again. She ground her teeth and the crystal tinkled as she shifted. "I'm gonna have to really fucking hold back for this- arrrgh!" she groaned and swang her sword experimentally, generating a loud tinkling sound. Her head whipped around to glower menacingly at Harper once more, jerking her head at the fake bomb. "Guard it and try to keep the two away from it if they get too close – take it up a level if you have to." Gees, this girl got more and more aggressive as time wore on…

Harper was about to question her and demand to know what she was planning when Leo and Elise crashed through the door, their animal-like Quirks readied to attack. _Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy_. What the hell was he doing here?! He didn't want to be a hero; he didn't have the strength! Couldn't they have gotten someone _better_ than Harper to take on this mission? He gulped and shuffled quickly back as Angelina readied her stance, glaring at the duo.

The lion-boy and dragon-girl came rushing at them in coordinated attack but Angelina was faster, striking out with a shield bash and a warning swing of her sword. They skittered away as growls rose up between them, setting Harper even more on edge. He gasped at the speed and ferocity of the attack, hardly believing that they were same friendly people as before – now finding it significantly easier to believe that they were involved with villains.

"DIE!" Angelina snarled and pushed all her weight into the shield to ram into Leo, knocking the wind out of him and Harper was sure he heard a _snap_. Angelina sent the boy flying across the room and settled her attention on Elise who looked a little less confident after the _strong_ display of aggression. The blonde whipped her head around and bit out, "take the fucking bomb _and go_. We've got another ten minutes of this shit to deal with!"

"H-hey!"

"Just move your ass already!"

While she was distracted, Elise had moved in, her wings increasing her agility. In her claws she had the capture tape pulled taut in her fingers, ready to wrap it around Angelina to win. Angelina grunted and slammed the flat side of her blade into the other girl's side, not enough to send her flying, but enough to keep the white ribbon away.

Harper gulped, deciding he didn't want to be caught up in the battle zone, so he dashed to the faux bomb and picked it up, surprised at how light it was. Was it hollow? He could feel only a light pressure through his gloves; was it just plastic? He hoisted it into his arms and ran at full speed out the door, the sounds of crystal meeting horns in a hostile confrontation ringing in his ears. He leaned his head to the side, trying to see around the expansive objective-item, when he caught a flash of gold in the corner of his eye.

" _Hey, Asparagus!"_ Angelina's harried voice crackled from the ear piece, " _Goldy's run off. He's heading your way!"_

Almost as soon as Harper registered the words, he heard a low, predatory growl rumble close behind him. His spine tingled with fright and his 'flight' instinct went into overdrive, sending the green haired teen sprinting through the halls, whipping around every corner with the threat of bashing into the sides. Damn, cumbersome, loud armour! He could hear the sound of paws pounding him and _oh why didn't he work on his stamina before coming to a freaking combat school?_

He let out a scream of fright when he turned the corner and the sound of smashing concrete and glass filled his ears. A yowl resounded in his ear and he twisted his head to see Leo being pushed to the floor by a barrage of concrete and crystal shards. Riding one of the slabs down, Angelina pounced on Harper, her crystal armour shattering and dispersing. Before the boy could shriek his surprise at a half-naked girl flying at him, he and the bomb were encased in a shell of pink crystals.

"Good job on sprinting, Asparagus – Goldy had to go on all fours to keep up." The blonde hero got to her feet, dusting herself off of grit and grime, creating a thin protective crystal layer over scratches and cuts. She glanced back at Harper, raising an eyebrow at how he had buried his face in the bomb. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Your costume is a bit-!" The shell rocked from side to side and the click of claws could be heard echoing inside the ball, cutting the armoured teen off midsentence. "What the-!"

Angelina rolled her shoulders and leaned against the circular wall. "That'd be Elise and Leo trying to break in."

"WHAT?!"

"Tch, don't worry." She tapped her knuckle against the rock, receiving a high clink in return. "My crystal is like diamond – it's hard as hell to break." She sighed as a boom resounded over their heads, sounding like fire roaring. "I've rooted us to the building so they won't be able to carry us away without taking most of this floor with them." She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at Harper. "Really, what are you doing to the bomb? Ya trying to make out with it or something?"

"Um-! W-what happened to your armour? Can't you make some more…?"

Both her eyebrows rose and if Harper had been looking, he might've seen a pink flush to match the rock spread over her cheeks. "C-can't. I can only have a certain amount of crystal in existence at any one point of time without serious repercussions. I had to disperse my armour in order to make this."

"Oh, ok. And um," he glared at her from the corner of the bomb. "WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THIS IN THE BEGINNING?"

"Hah?!" Angelina growled and her foot stamped against the crystal, emitting a loud ringing sound. "This is combat training! I can't use this during a competition!"

"Competition?"

"Our school is competitive!" Angelina snorted and scowled at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We fight in international tournaments all the time to prove and increase our reputation! Our class' debut is in just a few months against the top school in Japan!" she flicked her head and the image of a spoiled princess filled Harper's mind. "As the principal's daughter, it is my duty to earn first place." She snapped and her knuckle rapped against the crystal again. "This won't earn me any fucking points now, will it?"

"I-I suppose not."

Another crash resounded from outside our shelter, causing the green haired student to shudder. The blonde hero's eyes narrowed onto him and she 'tched' loudly, her eyebrows set in a permanent scowl. Was it the pressure to keep up the shell in the midst of a battle so straining that it made her easily irritable? "The hell did you do in order to earn yourself a place at my school?" she grumbled without any intention of hiding her disgust.

"Hey!" Harper didn't remove himself from his bomb-blinder but he matched her expression, bristling at her tone. "You don't act all that heroic yourself, what with your temper."

"Pfft! Shows what you know!"

"Hah?!"

A loud beep rang through the crystal and it dissipated, the mist wrapping around Angelina to recreate her armour. Elise and Leo had stepped to the side and were sulking, glaring sullenly at their class president. "TEST OVER. PLEASE LEAVE THE TRAINING GROUNDS." A robotised voice declared and the three classmates began to stride back down the steps. The Sound-Quirked teen followed, noting that Angelina's scowl had lifted but her steely glare had yet to alleviate. Huh…

They marched out of the building and towards a recently erected tent. The class was milling around and rose into chatter when they entered, giving their condolences to Elise and Leo while chuckling at Angelina's method. God King raised his hand and the teens' gossiping immediately died down. He raised his eyes and took each of the prospective-heroes in turn.

Finally, he spoke. "The match was cut short due to the stalemate caused by the villain's shell. Due to a technicality, the villain pair has won because they protected the bomb, but the purpose of this exercise was to enhance skills in combat, so I must deduct points in this matter." His eyes focused on the dragon and lion duo, his gaze softening slightly. "You two need to focus on combined attacks and keeping your enemies separated." His sight then shifted onto Harper and Angelina, hardening significantly. "Angelina, you've been told before to not use the shell during a practice match and to utilise your imagination to properly disarm and fight your enemy – the creativity of your Quirk is part of your image and your selling point; you can't become a one trick pony. You," he narrowed his sight on Harper, "you're going to seriously commit yourself if you want to succeed."

The next pairs were declared and made their way to their own practice grounds. Harper felt himself deflate. Who was he kidding? These kids had been training the moment they realised their destinies, and he had hoped to just pass through them without sticking out, in order to find highly classified information. If things kept up, he wouldn't find anything and would probably end up being kicked out. A hand touched his shoulder he turned to see Angelina staring at him intently.

"I'll train you. Meet me in the fourteenth courtyard straight after school."

* * *

"Wear these heels."

"What?"

"If you can fight in heels then you can fight anywhere at any time on any terrain."

"You're seriously asking me to try and punch you while wearing stilettoes?"

"They're Gucci."

"HOW IS THAT SUPPOSED TO HELP?"

"Ugh." Angelina dipped her head back and a string of curses were muttered under her breath. "You're such a fucking pain." Her head snapped back down and she glared at Harper in complete and utter irritation. "I'm trying to help, ya fucking Brussel Sprout."

"You've changed to Brussel Sprout now?" the green haired hero squeaked as a sharply pointed shoe was lobbed at his head, heel narrowly missing his eye. He rubbed his scalp and stared in bemusement at the girl. "Why the sudden interest in 'training' me? Is it because," a playful smirk spread across his cheeks, "you've taken a liking to moi?"

A shoe slammed into his nose and Angelina snarled something that sounded like, "putain oeuf". She grumbled and flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder again, drawing the shoes to her hand again by grasping them with her crystals. She took a deep breath and pushed the shoes towards the male student again. "Please… put the shoes on. I know what I'm doing."

Harper blinked his bright red eyes and slowly took the heels. Did she really say _please_? It sounded like it had seriously pained her! He kicked off his shoes and slipped them on, feeling his ankle strain with the change. "A-ah!" he wobbled in what were no doubt six-inchers, "do women really wear these stilts?"

"Yep." Angelina slid to her feet and her pink crystal shoes dispersed, leaving the sole of her feet to the mercy of the grass. "If you can fight and run in these then pretty much nothing can knock you down." With that, she dropped down and her foot shot out to sweep his legs from beneath him.

"Ow!" the heeled boy winced as he landed and he rubbed his tailbone. He glared at the girl as she rose gracefully to her feet, a devious smirk on her lips. "What the hell was that for?"

"Get ready, Harper Dean." She extended her hand and lifted him to his feet, helping him steady in the shoes. He was significantly taller than her now and the angel-demon hero grinned toothily up at him. "If your resolve to be here, for whatever reason, is strong enough, then be prepared to survive my bootcamp training."

* * *

"My everything hurts…"

Reiner pat his back in sympathy and the scrawnier teen had to hold in a groan as his already strained muscles were tested again by the powerful whacks. "Angelina's tough – it's why she's the class president and the teachers don't interfere too much."

Harper's pointed ears pricked and twitched, and he turned his neck as best he could. "Hng?"

"Yeah, our class gets away with a lot of stuff because of her." He gestured to the wide array of uniform variations and students lounging around during home room. "Have you seen the other classes? It's pretty militant and strict – you can't as so much have a loose thread out of place." He plucked at his shirt where the two top buttons were daringly unbuttoned. "She keeps an eye on everyone and, although she might snap at you, she will give you more support than most teachers ever will. She hosts the study groups and reviews everyone performances, along with maintaining her position as top of the class and keeping up her duties as a student, a class president, a hero in training and the daughter of the principal."

"Is that why she's so cranky all the time?"

Reiner howled in laughter and whacked Harper's back again. "Haha, probably. Wolfgang," he gestured to the boy sitting with the blonde in question along with what appeared to be their inner group, "mentioned that she used to be more relaxed but she's gotten really uptight as soon as she entered high school."

"Really?"

Elise twisted over from her spot and sighed, her fangs causing a slight whistle. "Wolfgang, Lucya and Claus are the kiddies of the board members so Angelina's known them since she was little. Anyway," she licked her pointed teeth idly, hands fiddling with her horns, "Angelina gets angry easily but her heart's in the right place and you can always count on her in a pinch. She wanted to teach her own lessons and since she the principal's kid and she's grown up on campus, the teachers let her."

"Why does she want to-"

Harper was cut off by the sound of a vase shattering. Nineteen heads swivelled around to see the shards of crystal pottery vanish into thin air and Angelina sitting cross legged on the desk. "M'kay, since we've got just over a month till the comp in Japan, it's about time we start coming up with codenames. This shit is important since it becomes our brand as adult heroes – you need something simple but memorable. You can change it later but it's better to stick to one." She flicked up a sheet of cardboard, in loopy black marker was the word: SERAPHINA. "I'm going to use Seraphina 'cuz Seraphs are the most powerful battle angel and my dad was going to make it my given name – that was until my mum stepped in. You've got till the end of homeroom to decide on yours."

The class began to excitedly chat with each other as they brainstormed ideas. Some were shot down instantly for 'that's already a hero' or 'it's too long and complicated' or 'it's dumb' while others were placeholders for the meanwhile. A few had already picked their names, such as Elise's "Draconicia" and Wolfgang's "Fenrir" while others managed to come up with theirs, like Leo's "Zodiac".

Harper stared glumly at the sheet of paper, scratching out half-written words and glanced around. What should he name himself? He didn't _plan_ to really become a hero – he just intended to be here long enough to prove the school guilty or innocent. Did he _need_ to give himself a name?

He jolted when a hand tapped his page down and was once again under the scrutiny of Angelina. "You gonna use a placeholder for now?"

"Uh, yeah, I suppose."

"Hmf, s'll good." For someone who was supposed to be the daughter of one of the richest hero families in the world, she spoke like she came from the wrong side of town. Her brown eyes, alarmingly reminiscent of a predatory bird's, narrowed onto Harper again. "You're still needing to get your costume updated and do more training."

"M-more?!" Harper attempted to flinch but his tried muscles scolded him for the action. "My muscles are killing me though…"

The blonde merely blinked and tossed hair over her shoulder. "It'd be weird if it didn't. Anyway," she leant her weight onto the desk, jumping up as her roller skates materialized on her feet to let her land on the wheels. "Meet me in the usual place straight after class again – I'll take you to the support department and fix up that clunky suit."

Harper groaned and flopped his head onto the desk as she rolled away, feeling longing for his bed back in England where he didn't have to deal with an irritable workaholic. He whimpered as he tried to reach for his pencil case, every fibre screeching at him in agony. Oh lord, he really should've refused taking on this job.

It was only when the maths teacher was half-way through explaining trigonometry that Harper realised that, if someone didn't want him finding out something, then the best course of action would tire him out on harsh distractions.

* * *

Harper had to chew on his teeth to stop the groan of pain as his limbs were pulled every which way, swarmed by multiple excited support students yapping at each other in a variety of languages. Angelina was reclining against a workbench on the side, an amused twitch to her lips as the green haired teen sent pleading glances her way.

"So, so! What do you need?" a second-year chirped, shoving a clipboard in his face and grinning maddeningly.

"Um, I need an upgrade to my armour…?"

"More mobility? Different colours? Different material? You've got to be more specific!" A first year tapped his thin arms with a pencil while her cohort wrapped a tape measure around his biceps.

"Um-!"

"What's your ID number? We can't upgrade from nothing!"

Angelina mercifully strode over and with a gleam in her eyes, soothed the horde. "He's filed under Dean – No.1A20." the group seemed to ooh in surprise at the number, a few mutters of 'he's the transfer' rippling through whilst a third year produced a folder, displaying Harper's current hero costume.

"He's got a sound Quirk?"

"Yep. I'm training up this skinny clump of asparagus for combat but his current suit is just," she wafted her hand towards the original design, "blegh. It sucks. We need something quiet but also being able to maximize his hearing and sound projection – along with giving him enough support in a fight. Make it a little flashy; Asparagus doesn't need much more in that section."

"Yes m'am!"

Harper watched in bewilderment as the other students began to flit around him, winding tapes around any portion they could reach and muttering measurements and other textile associated lingo that he hardly understood. First years gave way for their seniors and Harper was certain that the amount of people in the room was rapidly multiplying.

Then, akin to petals flying away in a sharp wind, they dispersed with their records and designs into the adjoining workroom, leaving Harper with Angelina. The blonde rolled her shoulders and glanced back at the stunned green haired teen. "You like 'em?"

"Um…"

"Geh," she yanked off her jumper and tied it around her waist, "they're pretty chill compared to a lot of the other departments. Hero course, 'cept for our class, are pretty cold and stressed – they're schooled to hell and back. The Support are given a lot of freedom but, especially the seniors, they're put under a lot of pressure to succeed so they're often just as stressed as the ones in the hero course – it's the beginning of the year though, so they're relaxed. Management, I haven't interacted with them much, but they're trained just as hard as the rest of us." She massaged her forehead, as though trying to push away the scowl lines.

"What about the General Education classes?"

"Ah," a small, almost envious smile graced her features, "they get to live the life of normal private school kids – they're just being bled for their parents' cash to fund the rest of the school…" she sighed and flicked her hand, crystals frosting over her skin. Her eyes didn't leave her palm but another scowl began to break over her face. "Speaking of which; where did you come from?"

"Huh?"

"Where did the Asparagus come from? You're not from any school for heroics, that's for sure. I still don't know what you did to carve yourself a place here." It might have been Harper's eyes playing tricks on him, but he thought he saw the crystal turn jagged and darker, beginning to create ridges along the wrists. "Who exactly is 'Harper Dean'?"

They were interrupted by a support student trotting into the room. Without regard for the quickly decaying tension in the room, the tired student thrust a sheet of paper at Harper's chest and left just as quickly as they came. Red eyes quickly diverted from brown, hoping that Angelina hadn't picked up his apprehension at the question. He could feel a cold sweat begin to build and he had to stop himself from squeaking when the girl stepped purposefully close. He nearly sighed in relief when she merely leaned over his arm to look at the paper, vaguely noting that it was a new design.

What had he expected, in full honesty? Of course _someone_ would get suspicious at the sudden transferral of a student! Of course just 'slipping in quietly' wasn't going to work at an international hero school like this! How did they expect him to gather _highly classified information that could bring down the most powerful forces in Europe_?

"Hey! Putain oeuf! Ya still there?"

"E-eh?" He blinked and realised the heiress had leaned in close to his face with a small pout, all traces of hostility washed away. She tapped his page and he glanced down to see a highly detailed mechanical armour blueprint neatly depicted on it.

"You like it?"

"Di-did they just draw this up?"

"Of course! They're our Support Department! It's probably going to get approved by a teacher sometime today but you can expect it to be ready by the next practical lesson." Angelina leaned back and sauntered over the door. "Coming? We've got more training to do today."

Harper quickly stuffed the sheet of paper into his hoodie and followed after her, silently thanking whatever deity was out there for not revealing him. He chased after the roller blading girl, red eyes distantly watching the bright gold hair as it swished with each sliding step. He had barely time to think of a plan to uncover any form of information, but he was certain that aside from outright sneaking into the restricted staff areas, Angelina would be his best bet. She obviously held significant sway over the student body and the staff, practically ran an entire class, was the daughter of the prime suspect and gaining her trust would likely open a whole world of benefits.

The green haired teen's stomach flopped as his mind raced around the idea. If things proved to be true, if he had found it out by _using_ Angelina, what would happen? Would she find out? She would no doubt hate him. Was she involved? Would she attack him? If they really were committing crimes of a global-scale, then it would mean that he'd have to go into witness protection probably for the rest of his life – provided that they didn't get to him before he leaked the information.

"Hey, Asparagus." Harper snapped his head up, realising that they arrived in the secluded courtyard. Away from people. Alone. With a lead suspect. _Oh_. He gulped and hummed in acknowledgement. Angelina turned and stared at him straight in the eye, steady brown eyes boring into him. Oh god, oh god, was she going to confront him? _Did she know_? Was she actually waiting for them to be isolated before she attacked?

"Are you a mafia kid or something?"

"H-huh?"

Angelina lifted an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "You came into our school _real_ incognito – you would've needed to be involved in some big, flashy event to bypass the entrance exam and enter midterm – but you would've been in the news for that and I haven't heard a whisper. Dad said you were slotted in by the _government_." She tensed the word as though it was a deadly mushroom she had just plucked. "So, logically, you're a big shot."

"So that means I'm in the mafia?" He had been right – Angelina was privy to a lot of probably classified information via her father.

" _Well_." She twirled a strand of hair in her hand. "It's the most probable conclusion. We've had kids brought in from the past that needed the protection of Saint Rose due to their country's mafia hounding 'em. Quite a lot were the kids of the boss' that had leaked info in hopes of being heroes – so they were sent here to get proper heroics training in compensation." She rolled her shoulders and toed the ground with her crystal sandals, glancing Harper's way. "You've got that same nervous look that they all do."

"…You've been observing me?"

The blonde was over in a flash to give him a light punch on his shoulder. "Don't say it like that! You're making me out to sound creepy!"

Harper winced and rubbed the spot, amazed at how often the students have given him a 'love tap' within his short time in attendance – and those little whacks were leaving bruises and sore muscles. He fixed his red eyes onto the girl and a small grin lit up his face. "Oh? Isn't that a bit of a 'I hate-to-love-you' kind of response? Shouldn't you put your hair up in pigtails for this act to work?"

"Never mind; you've got the look of a perv."

"H-hey!"


	2. Act 2

_A/N: The last chapter was so rushed, inconsistent and shitty, my apologies for that. I've also extended this story to four chapter because goodness, this chapter was going to get too long._

* * *

"Harper."

The green haired teen shot his head up, hurriedly wiping away the drool from the side of his face. He twisted around, ready to screech at the teacher that he hadn't been asleep, stopping dead when Angelina's piercing stare glowered at him. "H-hey, Angie…"

"First off:" Angelina gave him a sharp tap on the shoulder with her fist, adding to the garden of light bruises that were blossoming there, "we're not close enough for you to call me Angie." She waited for him to nod as he tenderly rubbed his shoulder – was he ever going to heal from his classmate's tendency for casual violence? "Secondly, if you're going to sleep in class then you'll need to study even harder."

"Ye-yeah." Harper flinched as he remembered the score he had gotten on this morning's pop quiz in heroics. It was difficult to study when you were always so exhausted from a certain angelically devilish hero's boot camp training. He met Angelina's gaze and he swallowed; even after a few weeks under her tutelage, she still intimidated the hell out of him. "I'll… I'll try my best to stay awake from now on."

"That's not the entire issue." Angelina mumbled and she dropped a piece of paper on his desk. "You came midterm so you've missed out on _a lot._ You'll need tutorship in order to catch up."

Harper had the supress a groan. He hadn't been at Saint Rose for long but he already felt like his old personality was being ripped apart by this intense environment – how did the other kids manage it? Angelina, according to the others, had turned a lot more serious once she entered the school, but everyone else seemed pretty carefree.

"Oi, Asparagus, I need an answer."

Harper snapped out of reverie and nodded quickly, before his brain was able to catch up with what he was agreeing to. Angelina, now satisfied, walked away to begin organising the heroic theory lesson. Harper picked up the sheet of paper and saw scrawled across it were directions to one of the buildings on campus with times and days printed across the top. Ah… that's right… he'd agreed to be tutored… oh boy.

For the umpteenth time, Harper wished he was back home in England – at least there, he wasn't being worked to the very bone for the sake of a test score and a job that he doesn't want.

When class was finally over, Harper dragged himself to where the sheet of paper requested, coming upon one of the many looming, elaborately designed buildings on campus. It had been quite difficult to locate, seeing as the only difference to distinguish this one from the next was the tall, ornate fence lining the perimeter with bright orange crystals placed intermittently. Harper looked at the flimsy looking deterrent with suspicion – something must be off. His red eyes sought out the large crystals at the top of the fence and he narrowed his eyes. Angelina's crystals were a reddish-pink, while these ones captured the weak mountain sun and shone like miniature suns. A lot of Quirks were hereditary so were these ones made by a family member?

Whatever they were, Harper decided, it would be better not to touch them. He looked at the gate and slowly clinked it open, triple checking that he had the right building. It looked a bit too grandiose for a study hall or something just for the school's tutors… but hey, Saint Rose was very liberal in showing off its wealth.

The gate slid open with ease and he climbed up the stairs, knocking on the door, flinching at the noise it made. Sheesh, he had really changed after coming here; he used to be way more assertive. Guess that's just what happens when you become the straggler in Europe's top hero school. The door opened and a man in what appeared to be a butler's uniform opened up, looking imperially and stereotypically down his nose at the teen boy. "Can I help you?' Wow, he even had the French accent and everything.

"Um, I'm Harper Dean and A-Angelina sent me here-!" he showed the man his sheet of paper, holding back a wince at how crinkled the paper was. The butler didn't even touch it, continuing to stare at Harper.

"Dubois," a familiar voice called, "Monsieur Dean est mon invite." The butler huffed, looking at the ruffled boy before he fully opened the door and disappeared back inside. Taking it as his que to enter, Harper slowly inched his way inside. He gasped at the interior of the building – arches, paintings, detailing along every inch of surface, expensive furnishing, waxed floors and a wide staircase leading to upper floors. He must've stumbled into a palace! Well, the entirety of Saint Rose was like this, more or less, but _this place_ was like everything had been an added an extra thousand-dollar price tag to it.

"W-whoa…"

"Hey, Asparagus." Harper twisted at the sound of the call, nearly slipping on the brutally clean floors, to stare bewildered up at Angelina who was peering at him upside down from a balcony. She raised an eyebrow at his display and gestured for him to join her upstairs. Seeing his lack of movement, she rolled her eyes. "What? I would ask if you're waiting for an invite but I already gave you one, so get up here already."

She flickered away and Harper hurried up the stairs, feeling anxiety trickle into his bones. Should he have wiped his shoes? Should he have taken them off? What should he do? This place was too fancy – what if he tracked something in! Where was he anyway? He reached the top of the stairs and saw his blonde classmate waiting by one of the many off shooting doors. He quickly strode over and she gestured for him to enter.

Inside was a fairly small room, but it easily made up for its expensive tastes, somehow even more elaborately decorated with just a few couches and coffee table. The vase sitting on the coffee table looked like it was worth more than his home back in England. "Where… where am I?"

"This is one of the parlours." Angelina said simply, drifting past him to seat herself. He noticed that she was out of her school uniform, now dressed in a floating, pastel pink dress. She glanced back up again at his lack of movement and rolled her eyes. Oh no, did she think he was staring? He had only been looking for a moment! "You can sit, y'know?"

"Ri-right." Harper shot over to the adjacent couch, noting how incredibly soft the material felt. There was no way this place could be normally accessible to students. "Uh, so… what _is_ this place?"

"My house."

"H-huh? This is your place?"

Angelina nodded and glanced out the arched window. "Yes, this is my family's residence."

"I thought you'd live in the dorms…" Harper mumbled, rubbing the side of his head. Well, it did made sense after all that she'd live with her parents – she had grown up on campus after all.

The hero-girl sighed and twirled a bit of hair in between her fingers. "I did want to, but my parents insisted that I stay here." She grumbled, shooting a glance at the still open door. She reached over to her school bag and begin to pull textbooks and tablets out of the folds. "Get your stuff out, we're starting."

"So, I guess you're going to be tutoring me as well?" Harper gave a shaky laugh as he too brought his stuff out. Ah, he should've expected her to also take up this role; Angelina _had_ taken it upon herself to be his personal trainer as well, what was to stop her from coaching him academically?

"Mhm… we'll start on page 327." She grumbled, flicking through her own notes and books.

"You take on a lot of responsibilities – more than most people ever would." Harper muttered under his breath. While Angelina did intimidate him and had an awful temperament, he could see that she was devoted to her school and to her future.

"Of course," the heiress waited for Harper to finish scrambling in surprise at having heard his little comment, "I've spent my whole life here at Saint Rose so I know the curriculum inside and out, so it'd be selfish of me to keep this knowledge to myself while my classmates struggle along at the mercy of our teachers."

Harper nodded, trying to organise his belongings before a thought flickered through his head. "Have you ever been off campus?"

Brown eyes raised to lock with his red ones and Angelina slowly shook her head. "I've been all around the mountain, but I've never actually left it."

"R-really?"

"I've got everything here, and if I don't, it's not hard for it to be sent for." She grumbled, flicking her hand around to the expensive items surrounding her.

"But isn't it lonely being up here?"

Harper winced when Angelina turned to look at him, ready for the deathly glare she would certainly give him, but was surprised to see only a childishly bewildered look on her face. "Lonely? This isn't an isolated mansion from a gothic novel – this is a school so there's _always_ people around."

Harper raised an eyebrow at her. "Being alone is different to being lonely."

Her expression ticked over at that statement, returning to its usual unreadable irate look. She harrumphed and turned her head back to the work. "If you have time to be asking me questions about my social life, you have time for bringing up your grade." She swiped up a piece of paper and pushed it to his chest. "Here, this should prepare you for the upcoming test."

Harper nodded, certain that he had crossed some sort of line with her. Right, right, he should be trying to get close to her so he could find out if there really was a shady underside to this school, so best keep on her good side – the sooner he completed the mission the sooner he could go back home. He flicked his eyes down to the paper and his jaw nearly dropped. "Um… Angelina? This… this isn't in English…"

"Hmm?" She grunted and leant over. She scowled when she saw the page and pulled out a blank page of paper, snatching the notes of Harper's grip to begin copying in English. "Sorry, I wrote it in Italian."

Harper's memory flicked back to the butler and how Angelina would often come up with a variety of nicknames for him that weren't always in English. So far, he knew she could speak English and French, but she also knew Italian? "You write your notes in other languages?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Well, why?"

Angelina's pen continued to scratch out lines of notes, but she scowled at him from the corner of her eye. "We don't have any Italian classmates to converse with and I need to keep my skills sharp."

"Do you know other languages?"

She finished her page in record time and flicked it over. "I'm in the middle of learning Spanish, German and Chinese, but I'm pretty fluent in English, French, Italian, Russian and Japanese. I can understand but can't speak quite a few Slavic languages."

Harper sucked in a breath. "H-how?" he stared at the girl, his intimidation growing – who knew that many languages at that young an age?

"Well, Saint Rose is an international school and I've been here since I was baby so I had to learn quickly to converse with people, and my parents and servants are from different countries so I was always surrounded by different languages. Once you have the basics of a different language, it's easy to learn more." Angelina mumbled with a shrug.

"But Saint Rose's default language is English, everyone is expected to speak it, so why bother learning so many?" Harper could only stare at her wide eyed. She… she was on a whole different level. No wonder she was the class president, respected by her peers, allowed to teach classes and had so much free rein – it wasn't just because she was the principal's daughter, it was because she was a _prodigy_. If he didn't know any better, Harper would've believed she had some learning or memory Quirk to aid her.

"Because…" Angelina paused in her writing to look at him, brown eyes boring into him. "I want to start my career outside of Europe."

Harper blinked and cocked his head to the side. "You don't want to be a hero in Europe? Then where do you want to go?" He had of course expected Angelina to carry on the family tradition of working in Europe, so to hear this had taken him completely by surprise.

"I don't know – I might even try to a global hero." She began to continue her writing, printing the last few lines. She finished and handed him the page. "Here – study this and you'll pass the next test with ease."

"W-wow, thanks! I-!" Harper stopped and started at the page. "Um… Angelina?"

"What? We'll go over it in detail in a moment so-"

"I can't read your handwriting."

"Lo spingere questo libro nel tuo asino!"

"W-what?"

"Whatever, just make do or write out your own notes." Angelina huffed and flicked through her notes again, copying more pages and diagrams. The room was filled with an uncomfortable silence as Harper struggled with reading the looping mess of writing – god, it was so difficult befriending her; she snapped at the slightest of things. But still… it should all be worthwhile if he manages to uncover the school's underbelly. What should he do in order to get her to trust him? Scoring well was one idea that came to mind, but that wouldn't work well since as soon as the blonde saw Harper could handle things by himself, she'd likely go off and hang out with her old friends again. No, he had to try his best to befriend her while she was tutoring him. How though? Maybe he could invite her out somewhere? Offer to treat her?

"Hey, Angelina, I-"

"Well, well, what do we have here? Is this a _boy_ you've brought home?"

Harper shot his head up to stare wide eyed at the imposing figure looming at the doorway. Pale purple hair, inching on pastel, dark brown eyes, tanned skin and a thin, almost ice like pattern of orange crystals growing on her cheekbones and jawline – an imposing beauty. Harper gulped and felt himself lean back; her eyes were pin pointed onto him in what could only be described as a hunter's gaze.

"He's just a lagging classmate that I'm helping; don't worry yourself about him." Angelina waved her hand dismissively, not even bothering to greet or even glance up from her work at the newcomer.

The new woman, stepped into the room, the lighting showing that she was a bit older than the currently seated duo – perhaps in her early twenties. She was still staring down Harper and didn't seem she was intending to move her gaze any time soon. Harper recognised her, even without her hero mask – Incendia, among the top five heroes of Europe at an early age, valedictorian of her class at Saint Rose and the eldest daughter of God King.

Meaning she was Angelina's older sister.

"Um… hello." Harper mumbled, wary of the crystals growing on the woman's face, flashing back to the orange crystals he had seen lining the fence around the perimeter. No wonder they hadn't felt the need for a stronger defence – Incendia's Quirk was: "Dynamite Crystal" and, as the name implied, _her crystals could explode_. Well, more specifically, they were what an rpg gamer called 'fire crystals', they were hot stones that could catch on fire at their owner's command and could act as landmines, boosters, fuel, a blow torch, or dynamite should the need arise.

"Yo." She said simply, her eyes not letting Harper's red orbs leave their frozen lock with her own brown ones – so strikingly similar to Angelina's both in shape and aura. She took another step forward, eyes looking him up and down. "Hey, Angie?"

"Hmm?"

"Est-ce le transfert?"

"Oui."

Ok, yep, Harper was going to have to quickly learn more languages and soon, or else he was definitely going to miss out on some crucial points of evidence. That sounded like French – and they said something that sounded like 'transfer'? Deciding to play it cool, he said, "h-hey, how come she gets to call you Angie and I don't?"

"Because you're a gross boy."

"Stop it, Zephyr, you're scaring him."

Zephyr rolled her eyes, finally breaking eye contact to look at her little sister. "You really helping him out?"

"Mhm – he's scoring low and will fall behind soon otherwise."

Zephyr looked back at Harper, scowling slightly. "You work too hard." She grumbled. Yep, open hostility towards him, ok, _totally not being intimidated_. He could see the burning crystal grow along her skin, getting closer and closer to her face, inching from under her sleeves to begin decorating her hand. "Son passé est mystérieux." She mumbled.

Harper barely had anytime to even flinch before a wall of bright pink crystal shot up, protecting him and the notes from a small explosion. He gripped the sides of the chair in terror as the smoke cleared the room. Had… had he just been attacked? Had a recognised hero _attacked him?_ The crystal dissolved and Angelina was on her feet, pushing her sister out of the room with a nasty scowl. "I just fucking told you he's lagging behind _and even a senior would've only just been able to defend that attack_." She snarled, shoving Zephyr from the room.

The purple haired woman gave a short harrumph, not unlike how her younger sister would, and sent a last glance at Harper, eyes slicing through him. "Ne lui faites pas confiance, Angelina." She then turned tail and with a final goodbye of, "have fun studying with your boyfriend!" she was gone.

Angelina sighed and shut the door, icing the lock over with a crystal padlock, and connecting a crystalline thread around her wrist keeping her tied to it as she returned to her spot. "Sorry… about her." Angelina groaned and rubbed her eyes, massaging the slowly darkening circles under her eyes. "I'd say she means well, but, with my family, meaning well is a pretty dangerous idea." She glanced up at the green haired teen and a slow, shaky laugh escaped her lips. "She's hot headed and over protective – she thinks that it's suss that you came in late and doesn't want me hanging around you."

"And what do you think?"

Angelina rolled her eyes and began to get back to her work. "I already explained my thoughts on the matter – and _if_ you are who she thinks you might be, you're still a classmate and I have a duty to help you. Fortunately for us, she's only here for the week, then she's heading back to Paris with mom, so don't worry about her. That little display right there was probably to see if you had been trained."

Harper raised an eyebrow, loosening his grip and pretending to also get back to work. So Incendia was suspicious of him? That meant two things; the first one being that she thought he was from the government so Saint Rose really was conducting criminal activity, and the second being that he might be a spy from a criminal organisation. He had a chance now, best not to waste it. "By whom?"

The blonde raised her head, and slowly exhaled, "I've probably spoken too much – you'll likely find out about in a year or so, but for now my family would like to keep their investigation on the quiet." She folded her hands into her lap and pierced her bright brown eyes into him. "So I would appreciate it if you would not repeat my sister's… _unorthodox sense of action_ outside of here. I will treat you to lunch this weekend in apology."

Harper nodded and could almost sigh as a weight was lifted off his shoulders. So, Angelina wasn't going to budge easily in giving up information – after all, they've only known each other for a small amount of time and to give out what was highly sensitive information would be foolish on her part. But at least she had set up a lunch date and that was a start in the right direction at the very least. If he could gain her trust, he was sure Angelina would begin to relax more and begin dropping hints and clues as to where he might find more out.

"Alright, now we should be able to work without interruption…"

* * *

Harper ended up spending a surprising amount of time with Angelina. His grade soared, both in normal classes and heroics. Though, he wasn't entirely sure if he liked the payoff. If they weren't in class, she was training him to fight. If they weren't training, then she was tutoring him. If they weren't studying, Harper was struggling to keep himself from not curling into a ball from sore muscles and mental fatigue as the two had lunch together on a Sunday at one of the school's mini cafes. The first lunch meeting had gone so well that it ended up becoming a mutual agreement to keep it up, and Harper was thankful that he had so many opportunities to get closer to Angelina.

For the sake of the mission, of course!

Harper doubted if Angelina slept – from what he heard from the rest of the students, the blonde was still organising lessons, doing her own studies, helping other students and being an overwhelmingly perfect student. Harper might've asked how she was able to do it, that it would surely impact on her health, but he was able to see the slow, decaying transformation. Dark circles began to grow under her eyes, she became thinner and her crystal paled and took slightly longer and longer to form each time. Her personality took a hit, continuing its downhill roll of becoming snappish, mean, snide and sarcastic.

During one of their lunch dates, Harper had been talking about a park near his home from when he was child, only to realise that the heiress had stopped humming to signify she was hearing. The green haired teen turned, ready to give a hurt retort at the lack of interest – yeah, it may not have been the most stimulating of topics, but you should at least _feign_ interest out of politeness. He stopped however when he saw the mop of blonde hair spread out over the table and Angelina was snoozing beneath the knotty mess.

"Honestly…" Harper sighed and leant forward, looking her over carefully and sighing. Poor thing was probably working herself to death; it was amazing she hadn't gotten sick yet. The red eyed teen looked at the blonde hair, seeing it had become tangled and greasy; when was the last time she washed it? Harper couldn't help worry rise up in his stomach. They weren't even past the halfway mark in their first year so how was she going to manage for the rest of it? She was his lead in getting information and he couldn't afford to lose her… right, that was the only reason. He raised a hand and gently tapped her shoulder. "Hey, Angie."

The blonde shot up, her eyes wide before they narrowed into a scowl. "What?"

"You were asleep."

"I wasn't." she growled around a yawn, rubbing sleep away from her eyes and flicking hair away from her face, "and I thought I fucking told you not to call me Angie, putain oeuf." She righted herself into her previous position and scowled. "So, what aimless thing were you talking about?"

Harper sighed, counting down from ten before he answered. He had to stay calm – she was tired and full of evidence, he just had to bear with it to see if it would come to fruition. "You know, I don't mind if you went to sleep during these."

"The hell does that mean?"

"With all due respect-"

"That always means you're going to say something disrespectful."

Harper clenched his hand in his pocket, struggling to keep the mission in mind. Angelina was his ticket back home and he was stranded at this school until then. He had to come up with something – they don't approve undercover searches like these unless they have due evidence so he had to find a reasonable explanation or he wouldn't be going back to his village or his family until after graduation. He. Had. To. Keep. His. Cool. "You look like you're about to drop dead any moment, so I would rather prefer you spent this time sleeping than crankily drifting off."

Angelina glared at him, a full on gaze that put shame to the phrase 'if looks could kill'. "If you don't want to do this anymore, then I can find better use of my time." She grumbled, scooping up her bag and preparing to leave.

"Angelina!"

She paused and slowly turned her gaze back to him. "What?"

Ok, he was going have to choose his words very carefully – one wrong move and Angelina would drag them back to square one. "How much sleep have you gotten this week?"

Angelina paused and raised an eyebrow. "The he-"

"Answer my question."

"Look, I'm taking some stuff that-!"

"Answer me, Angelina."

The blonde dumped her bag and slumped back into her chair, laying her head onto the table with a clunk and groaning. "One hour each night." Harper whistled – how was she still standing? "But I've been taking meds that keep me up." She exhaled, and the tension in her shoulders deflated like a balloon, relaxing in the probably uncomfortable position.

"That's only blocking out the symptoms, you still need to rest or you're going to kill yourself before we even get our first licence." Harper sighed and leant forward, beginning to slowly stroke her back in even circles. It looks like she'd fall asleep right here and now…

"What are ya doing?"

Harper nearly jerked back at the monotone rumble, only freezing up. Yeah, Angelina was probably one of those people that disliked people touching them in general. "U-uh…!"

Harper barely missed the sleepy whisper from the blonde. "You're too nice a guy… how can Wolfgang and the others think you're a government spy?"

The green haired agent went onto auto pilot after that, his hands resuming his actions of slowly stroking the probably criminal's back, as his mind ticked over as it analysed the revelation. You're not worried about government spies unless you had something to hide. Ah, so they had been right all along. Something was definitely up and Angelina had let it slip when she was weak and vulnerable. He might've felt bad for using the blonde, if Harper wasn't informed on what exactly this criminal circuit were doing. Now he just needed to get some solid evidence of this misconduct – it wouldn't be too hard to get it now that he knew where, or who, to look for, and aided by the training Angelina had given him plus his recording Quirk…

Harper hadn't gotten to interact with Angelina's inner circle yet. Angelina sat with them during breaks, chatting with them and laughing. Were those lot the masterminds? He wouldn't put it past Angelina to have added another thing to her already busy schedule – and times like the night, when she should've been asleep, to conduct illicit activities would add up.

He didn't know much about Wolfgang, Lucya and Claus, only having witnessed their strengths in class and a bit of their personalities and backstories from the other students. The three of them were long-time friends of Angelina, all being children of board members so they had spent a considerable amount of time visiting Saint Rose. If this corruption was all the way at the top (teachers, board members, the principal, etc), as it was originally believed to be, then it would make sense that the offspring would be involved as well.

Wolfgang seemed to be Angelina's oldest and closest friend. He was tall and had silvery, wirey hair, and was the second highest scoring student in grade, right under Angelina. His codename had been Fenrir due to his Quirk turning him into a werewolf with incredible size, speed and strength. The few times Harper and Wolfgang had interacted, the newcomer had felt suspicion and dislike from him. Harper hadn't dared approach Angelina when the werewolf like man had been close. Apparently, Wolfgang's father was to take control of the school in God King's absence. It wasn't a stretch of the imagination to see the wolf-like teen as a thug.

Lucya was the only other girl in the group and another over achiever. She was sickly sweet and petite, having slinked up to Harper the odd few times to deliver a message from Angelina. She had auburn hair and melancholic brown eyes, looking too close to comfort to being a doll – her Quirk and heroic name appropriately being called Marionette, which meant that, as long as she had wrapped some form of string or rope to someone, she could control them like a puppet. Harper had gotten a bad impression from her when, during a sparring lesson, she had wrapped thread around his wrist and had him attack himself while Lucya had watched giggling – only being saved when Angelina had cut the sword with a sweep of a crystalline blade. Her ability and personality exhaled malevolent intent.

Claus rarely spoke anything besides German, conversing with his group in his native tongue with a lack of interest in interacting with other. Harper knew the black haired teen could speak English, having seen him turn in homework in perfectly legible handwriting. He had a short encounter with Claus at one point, when the boy had purposefully bumped shoulders with him in the hallway and growled something threatening at Harper, mentioning distinctly Angelina's name. His Quirk, Mistral, was the only one Harper had managed to defend himself against due to it being musically based, turning sounds into attacks, which allowed Harper to disrupt with his own Quirk, but it could still do a lot of damage so it wasn't hard to see it being turned into a bomb in crowded areas.

Well, Harper thought as he raised his head, red eyes looking at the dying sun outside the window of the café, as Angelina slept heavily at the table, it wouldn't be too long now. He just had to get the evidence and then he'd be in the clear.

* * *

Harper padded close behind the silver haired teen, his Quirk absorbing any sound he might've made as he stalked his quarry. Strange, that although Wolfgang had a Quirk that turned him into a wolf, he was the prey tonight.

After Angelina had gone home, Harper didn't waste any time in getting ready. Better to get out as soon as possible, in case he was found out in the near future or he missed an opportunity. He donned his old stealth costume; all black clothes that wouldn't flap or slow him down, knee and elbow pads, and a mask to hide his rather vivid features – all courtesy of and insisted to be brought by his parents. Harper had hoped he wouldn't need this stuff for his stay at Saint Rose, but it was fortunate he did.

He donned the outfit, realising that the clothes now felt different due to his change of physique from Angelina's rigorous training. Huh, Angelina had unwittingly helped him become sneakier and more agile for missions like this. A small glimmer of guilt welled in Harper's heart at the thought – wasn't he betraying Angelina, his friend, by going through with this? He crushed that thought and checked to make sure that he was ready. If Angelina really was in league with villains, then it was a cruel irony on her for helping him and Harper shouldn't dwell on the potentially hurt feelings of a criminal.

Worst case scenario, having the training she gave him might just save Harper's life.

Clearing his mind, Harper opened the window and exited onto the roof, watching carefully for any of his three suspects to leave the dorms. He waited patiently for hours – if Angelina could manage on so little sleep, he could handle a few hours to stake out. Just as Harper worried that the sun would soon rise, and he would have to return to his room before he was spotted and questioned for such suspicious activity, the door slid open and a grey wolf left the dorm.

Bingo.

Harper followed, sliding down roofs and buildings, hiding in the shadows as he tracked Wolfgang. He followed, all of his training from both Angelina and his parents coming to good use. The spy thought distantly of how he had judged the suspects' Quirks and how villain-like they were, but here his Quirk was only really good for was being sneaky and grey area activity.

He followed his classmate endlessly, careful to make sure he kept far away enough – he wouldn't get caught, not with the amount of monotone lessons drilled into him. Finally, Wolfgang stopped and transformed back into his human form as Harper came to rest hidden by an alleyway. He switched his Quirk from muffling to recording. His ears twitched at the sounds of boots hitting the stone pathway, certainly not the simple school shoes Wolfgang had been wearing.

"Wolf."

"Hello, sir."

"Any updates on that new student?"

"Angelina is still tutoring him and he's managed to catch up to the rest of the class now."

"Hmm, thought so. Has he done anything suspicious?"

"No, he's been kept busy by Angelina and continues to display no confident or active traits."

"Hmm, little Angie's training probably would squash out any resistance… yes, yes, Wolf, I know that look, and no, I'm still against having her join… she's… she's too _idealistic_."

"You can't blame her."

"'suppose not, but it'll get her killed herself in the end, if her current physical state is any testament."

"Hmm…" Wolf hummed and took a small sigh. "How about you? Is keeping the balance going smoothly?"

"Yes, although I mostly have to credit this school, as it is a wonderful attribute to turning out Europe's next heroes and villains."

If it wasn't for Harper's quirk, he would've gasped aloud and given himself away. So, they had been right all along. Saint Rose was actually part of a mastermind scheme to create both heroes _and_ villains. The government had been suspicious for a while, as conspiracy theorists demanded that their voices be heard. That things sometimes went _too_ smoothly, like a rigged match – that the government was being cheated of their money by a complex plan that had villains working together with heroes to create catastrophes and attacks. Anyone who didn't abide by these rules were abruptly killed, were quickly inducted, or went missing – hero and villain alike. That heroes that should statistically be weaker than their enemy were somehow pulling ahead and it was a sordid system going all the way to the top. The government had collected plenty of evidence, linking different members at different levels, but nothing solid yet.

And this recording was the evidence they needed to warrant arrests and public investigation.

"It's nearly daybreak – you should get back and get ready for class."

Harper waited for the wolf to streak past and the boots to melt away into the quiet, before he hurriedly made his way back to the dorms. He had approximately three hours before class began – enough time to send his Quirk-recorded audio off.

It was over.

Although, as he pulled off the mask once he arrived in the safety of his room, and began to think back over the conversation, Angelina was now implied to be innocent.

* * *

It was three months later after Harper had transferred when _it_ happened.

Harper had done his job. He had uncovered the corruption in the school and had the audio to prove it, having set it off to his parents who would relay it to the higher ups.

The problem was what happened as a result.

The class was completely shaken by the events that occurred.

Harper hadn't received a single warning in advance when they were going to storm the school. Angelina had no memory of her little slip up, and had slowly begin recovering thanks to the naps Harper guarded over. He made sure whenever he could, whether it was in between lessons, after tutoring and training, Angelina was getting some rest.

His nerves were on edge and focusing on Angelina was the only thing keeping him sane, 'keep your position and stay in disguise', were not the easiest words to handle when he was now in the confirmed nest of villains. Were they expecting him to send more information? He had kept an eye out to see if Wolfgang, Lucya or Claus had made any disappearances or moves, also listening carefully to Angelina for anymore hints – but nothing yet.

A week after he had sent the file, He was at his desk, going over some notes as they waited for their next teacher to arrive, Angelina resting her head on the desktop so he could ask her if he needed an explanation or something, and Elise came tiptoeing over. "Oooh? What is this?"

"Hey, Ellie." Harper greeted. The dragon-Quirked girl, along with Reiner and a few others, had become good friends of his, often spending his free breaks with them whilst Angelina went with her group. He found the partially scaly girl a good friend, enjoying her chirpy and warm personality after bleak winters of Angelina's snappishness. His only issue with her was that he often had to turn down invites to gatherings with her due to it constantly clashing with his monopolized schedule from Angelina.

"Are you, perhaps," she gave a dramatic gasp, red tail swishing excitedly, "in a romantic relationship with our ice crystal princess? Oh, the scandal~!" she sang and twirled herself into a seat next to him.

Angelina raised her head at arrival and gave a small snicker, "you've caught me – this poor peasant boy is now completely under my control." She joked.

"Oh my! Is that a smile on our wicked witch's face?" Elise leant forward to pinch the blonde's cheek. Harper had relaxed when he saw the heiress begin to liven up – the were naps doing wonders for her. Her eyes were brightening, she was more ready to deal with people, and her crystals were making the recovery to a full, rich, rose colour. She was still her usual smug, snide, swearing self, but more… cheerful, if that made sense.

Angelina chuckled and pushed herself into a sitting position. "So, what makes you think we're together?"

Elise pouted and tapped her lip, "I've never seen you spend so much time on just _one_ person, Angie." The red head paused to let Harper again complain at his restriction of him using the nickname, "And this sort of banter – I haven't seen you banter with anyone except your old friends."

Angelina rolled her eyes and gave a gentle flick on the scale freckled girl's nose. "Rest assured, asparagus boy hasn't taken me off the market. Besides, aren't I bantering with you right now?"

Harper rolled his eyes and set about doing his work – he'd let the two girls talk in peace. It was rare to see Angelina interact with anyone else, especially when she wasn't so haggard and snappy, so it was pretty nice to see her so relaxed and easy going. A cold feeling developed in the green haired teen's stomach – he didn't know how much longer this would last before the school was shut down by the government.

Screams of surprise rung out when all of a sudden, the shutters slammed down over the windows and the piercing wail of a siren flooded the intercom. Shrieks rung out as a distant, but distinct, _boom_ resounded, rattling the building. There were cries of confusions when the lights went out and an emergency back-up red light washed the room, and Angelina was on her feet in an instant.

"We're in lockdown! Everyone," she formed her crystal into the shape of a rifle, the usually sweet pink now changed to an ominous ruby in the new lighting, "be prepared to defend yourselves!"

Harper froze as the others rose to their own feet, Quirks activating as many took readied stances. No way… he should've gotten at least some kind heads up – a _message_ if anything. Was Saint Rose under siege from the government? There was no way that could be possible – they wouldn't have the right to resist an arrest and certainly not expect the students to involve themselves. What was happening.

Another boom sounded and eyes flicked to the shutter as it rattled, yelling being heard faintly. It was close… too close. Angelina noted this and she leapt, her crystal quickly forming a platform underneath for her to begin doing a headcount. Her eyes darted around and she bit her lip, before quietly repeating the process under her breath. She paled and shouted, "Where's Wolf, Mari and Beet?"

Harper frowned, trying to decipher who the blonde could mean with those nickames, until realisation dawned and he shot his head around, noticing with a crush that Wolfgang, Lucya and Claus were missing. Oh no. Oh no, no, no, NO! This was bad. Very, _very bad_.

Angelina was on her roller blading heels in a minute, cussing quietly under her breath. "I'm going to go search for them – everyone stay here!"

"Angie, are you crazy?!" Harper shouted, grasping her arm as the heiress made a move to begin rolling off. She whirled around and before she could sling an array of quickened insults at the delay, he yelled, "you know that's against protocol! Without our licence we don't have the legal rights to fight villains without a teacher's consent – we'd be the same as vigilantes!" He roared. Angelina scowled menacingly and wrenched her arm away from his grip.

"Shove that shit away! In a situation like this, if our classmates aren't already here then they're out _there_!" She gestured at the door with her gun, crystals glinting in the red light to look like blood. "Any repercussions from my actions can easily be handled by my family, so ya'll better keep your asses in here, because _my friends are out there where it's dangerous_!"

Harper groaned and rolled his eyes. "You drilled into me the strategies for these situations – all of them say _don't go_. You don't know _where_ they are, _who_ is out there causing this havoc or _what_ they're capable of! You're signing your own death wish!" he snarled, reaching out to grab her arm again.

She twisted out of his grip and began to roll her way towards the door. "I'm not staying here and doing nothing! Bunker down until I come back with them!" she replied before she wrenched open the door and went roller blading at top speeds down the hall.

"Angelina!" Harper called out, sticking his head out the door, seeing it also drowned in the same red light and the windows blocked off with titanium shutters. Shit. She could probably handle herself if this was some villain attack – but _there was no way_ this was some run of the mill villain attack, especially if the evidence Harper had gained was any proof that any and all villain attacks were rigged from the start. That only left one option. The Special Quirk Control Unit of Europe had been dispatched to bring Saint Rose under government control, and Angelina was probably running herself headlong into battle against them.

"Goddamn it." Harper groaned before he bolted down the hall, trying desperately to pick out where the source of the fighting was. Angelina was innocent and to implicate herself against this unit would certainly land her hot water – Harper had to try and stop her. She may have not been the most agreeable person in the world, but she was innocent, and Harper wasn't about to let her become a villain in exchange for her help.

He threw himself over down the stairs, scrambling down the hall to the large front gardens where the explosions and screams were growing louder and louder. He had to move faster, faster, faster. Angelina was his friend and she was in danger. He was going too slow! Goddamn this school and its maze of hallways! On her blades, Angelina would probably already a part of the fight. He knew he'd have to explain his betrayal – but he couldn't let her battle them. Harper rammed the doors open, nearly knocking them off the hinges at the force. The roar of a fight filled his ears and he opened his mouth, ready to scream out a warning to Angelina.

However, the words died on his lips at the display in front of him.

Wounded S.Q.C.U.E members had hauled them away from the fight, some desperately slicing the string around their neighbours to free them, some trying to administer first aid onto themselves while others had passed out cold. Harper slowly tracked the mess, red eyes following the small craters doted amongst the floors and broken fountains, to the battle taking place.

A suit of armour, completely made of rose coloured, opaque crystal, complete with spear and shield, was fighting against an enormous wolf man and several men who were being held up at odd angles by Quirk-shimmering rope. The knight swung and delivered the soldiers freedom from the strings, using their shield to cover them as the beast launched itself at the knight, only to be tossed to the side, sent sliding through the dainty foliage. The knight scooped the men up and pushed them out the way, using their spear to block an attempt to lasso them.

Harper watched in horrified awe as the knight dematerialised the spear, just to recreate it free of bounds. This… this was Angelina using the full extent of her Quirk? No way… this couldn't be her… she was fighting her friends! This knight was attacking without abandon, not holding back their swings as they met the full force of the attacks from the two.

Two…

Two!

"Claus-!" Harper gasped and could see the other teen off to the corner, charging up his Quirk, a great ball of fire forming over his head, his eyes burning into the knight. Harper felt fear light his nerves – if that attack connected, there was no way Angelina could weather it, even with her armour. Harper knew that Angelina's Quirk had been fine-tuned through generation of crystal Quirk users to create a stupidly over powered ability. But it had limits. He had seen it first hand in sparring practice with the others. 1: Angelina could only form crystal on her body and had to be connected to it to continue growing it. 2: If she wasn't connected to the crystal, she had approximately thirty seconds before it would dissolve – that wasn't too bad an issue since that usually meant she would just use it as ammunition 3: She had to already know the shape of what she formed – she couldn't make it up and had to have her crystal cover something to use as a reference later 4: She could recreate twice her body mass in crystal – Harper hadn't seen her try and extend beyond this and he was under the assumption it had dire consequences if she did.

And 5: although nearly impervious to all things, her crystal could be weathered and weakened by large explosions which could then be easily shattered in a small window of time before Angelina could regenerate. She also had a slower generation speed if he health was low.

As realisation dawned, Harper's vision went hazy and the world turned dream like. Sounds became muted and his legs were moving, hurling him towards Claus. His Quirk activated and the surrounding area became devoid of sound. Claus turned to look, his eyes wide in shock as the ball of energy evaporated, face paling when he saw Harper coming towards him.

Harper hadn't really thought his Quirk useful. It was very much a situational Quirk, and it didn't have much use in general and wasn't very versatile. It wasn't flashy, it could rarely be used in combat, it couldn't be used to help many people. All it could do was record and playback, as long as he didn't speak. It wasn't a 'heroic' Quirk, something his parents had been disappointed in when they realised that he had one at all.

Harper Dean was never interested in becoming a hero. He came from a small village in England, where his Quirkless parents where high up members of S.Q.C.U.E. that acted as a bridge in between them and the government. They had hoped their son could become a hero and had pushed him towards the position as soon as they found out he had a Quirk. But Harper never had the drive – he was never motivated in his defence combat and stealth lessons, shrugging his parents off when they suggested he try and enrol in their nearest heroics academy, only doing the bare minimum to keep them happy due to them begging. The sound Quirked boy had only wanted to play his music and go through life, with a hero and villain free lifestyle. He only agreed to this mission at Saint Rose when his parents promised that they would never again pressure him into doing anything heroic related should he complete it. The job was over for him – he had completed his objective and now it was only a matter of time before he was allowed to return home and begin perusing the life he wanted.

Yet, as his pulled back his clenched fist, why was he getting involved? He could've let Angelina fight, stay in the classroom and let everything sort itself out. Why? Why should he interfere?

His fist connected and decked Claus to the floor. He took a gasp of air, his Quirk switching off his playing of 'silence', feeling his muscles weaken at the high levelled trick as the other teen thudded to the earth. Using silence was the hardest for him, since he had to loudly project it, over the sound of a battle, over a wide range of area to block Claus' Quirk. It was difficult and he didn't often have the chance to do practice it, but he had somehow managed.

"Angie… Angelina!" he whispered, whirling around to see the rose-coloured knight whack Lucya unconscious and pull their spear out of the colossal wolf's side, seeming to have been knocked out. The knight turned, slowly looking at Harper as it cracked, pieces floating away on the wind and vanishing, as Angelina stumbled out of the armour. She raised her head and looked at Harper, empty brown eyes meeting his dazed red ones over the ruined garden.

She took a single step and crumbled, her body folding in on itself. Harper took a shuddering breath, his vision snapping into harsh reality and he sprinted to her side. Had she been hurt? What was wrong? Had she over exerted herself? He skidded to a stop and nearly bent down to try and roll the blonde over, when he lurched back suddenly as multi coloured crystal shot out and covered Angelina. He stared in horror as it encased, the opaque crystal forming a tomb over his classmate. "What the…! Angelina!" he screamed and pounded his fist against the stone, seeing the colours change and shift like a kaleidoscope. He hadn't seen her crystal change colours like that before – something was wrong.

"Hey… Angelina! Oi, Angie! Angie, what is this? Angie…?"

* * *

 _A/N: Writing something that isn't smut for a change is pretty nice – I feel like I'm stretching my legs when I'm writing something that spans over a fairly large plot timeline. It just sucks having to edit it all._

 _Also, google translate is definitely going to fuck me over since I only know so much._


End file.
